I had a knowledgeable pediatrician 25 years ago who had a believable
approach to solid foods.  First, he said that when a baby can sit alone she
has the enzymes--from saliva to intestines-- to digest solids, and the
tongue movement to get it to go down the throat.  The foods should not be
pureed because the baby is learning to handle "chunky" substances.  If her
solids are always pureed or watery she will swallow them similarly to
drinking and will tend to choke when she encounters pieces of foods.

He said the only need for solids in the first year was to supplement the
*gradually* declining iron stores later in the year, therefore any foods
should be good sources of iron--not iron intense, but just good sources,
such as carrots and sweet potatoes and these in small amounts *after* as
much human milk as baby wanted.  Any heavily iron-enriched foods would be
food for the intestinal bacteria and not for the baby. He held that a
modestly low hemo. count in the last half of the first year was a protection
for the baby as her own immune system was gearing up, and to overly "iron"
her was to her disadvantage.

If the family eats meats, then a little of the dark meat of chicken can come
later in the year. He felt that breastmilk is the staple food (major source
of calories and most other nutrients) and anything else was to be in small
amounts, preferable self-fed, with baby picking up little pieces herself.
Baby should eat with the family and eat foods that the rest of the family
generally eats. If the evening meal was something that baby was not ready
for then a simpler fare was available for her. Baby's eating of solid foods
is an extension of feeding of everyone else and not an isolated event.

He made it all seem very simple and relaxed.  There was no absolute order
for all babies, though he did recommend against dairy and eggs until after
the first year and not necessarily then. He felt that if baby fed herself,
she would not likely overfeed and would swallow better because she was in
charge of the rate. And feeding "issues" would be diminished. Solid foods in
the last half of the first year were not necessary for many babies, so if
baby wasn't interested now, she would be later.  He had a deep faith in the
nutritional value of human milk for humans and a belief that without
pressure or prescribing a baby would be integrated into the family's eating
experience.

Now, the babies that we deal with obviously don't have this physicians trust
in human milk or human beings.  I get clients whose babies are severly
constipated with the beginning foods that their doctor requires at a set age
and he "solves" the problem by advising prunes or suppositories. I tell the
moms what I have written above and invite them to trust their babies.  Some
do, some don't. It is obvious that nutriional benefit is not coming from
such feeding.

We make everything so hard with all of our charts, schedules, clocks and
calendars.  Sometimes it looks as if with everthing about our babies, and
ourselves,  we are re-inventing the wheel.  With 1 1/2 generations of
technologically directed (and fed) people we lost our sense of what it is to
be just a human.

Patricia Gima, IBCL
Milwaukee





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